They serve different needs. I have a Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, and I probably use the 10" one substantially more than the 7" one (I’m using the N10 right now, in fact), but that’s because I use it as my primary computer, with the Windows laptop relegated to niche things like my work VPN or viewing sites with Silverlight or whatever.
But smaller tablets are more portable, fit better in the hand, work better for reading books (though not comic books). But if I were looking for gaming purposes, I think I would choose the bigger screen. Plus, if your “small screen” one is the iPad Mini, man, 160 dpi is just unusable to me. It hurts my eyes enough to look at the pixelated mess that is the N7’s 215 dpi screen, and that’s closer to the 264 “retina” than to the ultra-low-res Mini. (The rumor is that Google will be coming out with a 1920x1200 Nexus 8 this year; I really hope so.)
Have you thought about the iPad Mini? It’s 7.9 inches, so it’s a bit bigger than the 7 inch tablets. It’s also easy to hold so it’s a better e-reader than the 10 inch tablets, unless you want to read magazines and comics.
About 16 GB vs 32 GB, there are 3D games that are 1GB+ in size, like Virtua Tennis or Jet Set Radio or Dead Trigger, on both iOS and Android. So consider this in addition to all the 1080p videos you might want to watch on all these high DPI displays. (One thing I am “thankful” for is that my eyes are old. Sigh. Nexus 7 looks perfectly sharp to me…)
PDF reading? Any of the recent tablets are fine. I found the 7 screen to be not-quite-big-enough for reading magazine PDFs, but it’s easy to pinch-zoom and pan around the page. Every other ebook/comic book app also reads PDF, and their quality goes all over the place…I stick with Acrobat Reader.
I don’t own a laptop so this thing would basically act as my laptop. I imagine I would probably use my daughters Kindle Fire if I wanted to read books, my tablet would be more for surfing the net, playing games, and watching videos when not sitting at my computer which is why I think I would prefer a bigger screen then the Nexus 7 or iPad Mini.
My guess is I would be happy with either the Nexus 10 or the iPad. I’m a gamer so the iPad would benefit me there, however the Nexus 10 is a little cheaper and I like how the Android based tablets are more open and can be customized a bit. I think at this point I’m leaning towards the Nexus 10, but I reserve the right to change my mind. :)
Those may be 1GB+ on iOS, due to how their current distribution system forces bloated bundles of unwanted assets (I have to imagine they’ll be fixing this soon). On Android, Virtua Tennis is 379MB; Jet Set Radio is 587MB; and Dead Trigger is 160MB.
Yes, for this use, get a big one. Also for this purpose, I think the N10 has two big advantages for you: 1) Real multitasking – if you use it with a Bluetooth keyboard (which probably you would at least some of the time), you can even Alt-Tab to switch between apps. 2) Multiuser support – if the rest of your family wants to use the tablet, they can have their own accounts and you can switch between them. This is more important on tablets than desktops, because you’re basically signed-in to all your apps all the time, and it’s a real pain to sign out of them an sign in with different users.
As I said upthread, I’ve been using the N10 as my primary computer for a while now. I do still have to go back to the legacy laptop for a few things (maybe Turbotax would have worked on the tablet, but I didn’t want to chance it; de-DRMing books only works on the desktop; there are some video streaming sites that are still Flash-only; while I can RDC into my basement server from the tablet, it’s hard to drive a Win7 desktop with touch, as people with Surface Pros are finding out), but for the most part it is surprisingly, shockingly workable to just use it as my only computer.
My advice is: don’t base your price estimate of the iPad on a brand new mid-range iPad. (And definitely don’t get a cellular one - it’s an extra $130 for the privilege of paying $30-50 monthly for a gig or two of data cap, which is frigging ridiculous.). Look at refurbished older models. iPad 1s are definitively obsolete now, but even the iPad 2 may still be viable for you depending on your specific needs (I have one myself - the spiffy resolution of the 3 is unarguably better but I’ve never missed it).
Amazon actually has the same pricing on the iPad as Apple does, what you’re currently seeing is them not having any in stock and third party resellers taking advantage of that to jack up the prices. I’m not 100% sure, but your gift cards may also work on Amazon’s “warehouse deals”, which are returns and refurbished models that are frequently essentially new but can’t be sold as such because the box was opened or the device used once or twice, and which are how I got my iPad.
Yes, if you want a light laptop replacement get a 10" model. If you plan to watch a lot of movies in areas without wifi (so you can’t just netflix/amazon/hulu/etc), get 32GB, if not the 16GB is fine.
By “light” I mean you can do some work with a bluetooth keyboard, but don’t expect to sit down and do a full day’s work on the thing, it’ll drive you crazy. But it’s a great traveling companion, where you primarily want to check your email, browse around, watch movies, etc.
iPad
Infinitely better software library, both utilities and entertainment.
Quality built-in apps for e-reader, email, music, audiobooks (m4b).
Need to go third-party for non-mp4 video formats (plenty of options).
Stable platform allows developers to maximize app quality.
Locked OS, falling behind in features.
iTunes is a god-awful, unintuitive, uncooperative piece of junk that somehow has never acknowledged that a person might own more than one Apple device.
Proprietary connectors, locked file system (use iExplorer to get around that).
If you want to save money, go with an iPad 2 or mini; if you want a retina screen don’t bother with the 3 (older processor only gets you performance comparable to 2); seriously consider getting the most storage you can afford, since there is no upgrading.
Android 4.x
Limited entertainment software options (piracy? hard to support so many screen resolutions & version combos? Heck if I know), maybe 25% of available iOS library.
Quality built-in video player (at least on my Note 2).
Better technical information available to user (battery use, processor use, etc).
Apps can be set to self-update (that’s nicer than I thought it would be).
Must go third party for e-reader, audiobooks (m4b).
Open OS allows for emulators, in-app stores, customization, and other things Apple will not tolerate.
Standard USB interface, open file structure on device.
Widgets! These are neat and useful.
Samsung’s iTunes clone (Kies) is weak but minimally funtional.
Devices frequently have memory expansion options (notable exception of Kindle Fires).
Leaving work out of the picture (like most people, I have a horrid, unlovely work-provided machine to use for work, and that’s all there is to it), it really is surprising how little stuff you need a legacy OS for at home.
And also a thing that’s important: A lot of your common activities are better done on a modern tablet than a legacy OS – it’s not just that you can do them on a tablet, it’s that all else equal, a tablet is better. Leaving aside some special-purpose stuff, the question isn’t whether a tablet is good enough to replace a laptop as your primary home computer, it’s whether a laptop is good enough to replace your tablet. And for me, the answer is no. Because the tablet has:
Notifications. If I am using a Windows laptop, and I get a Facebook notification, I hear a little sound, but don’t have any idea where it came from; if I get a G+ notification, I won’t notice anything until I go back to the G+ tab. On a tablet, I get little notifications for both right up in the notification bar, and can quickly switch to that app to see what the new thing is.
Better UI. Tapatalk is, really, a better forum UI than the web UIs for most forum software. The Twitter app is better than twitter.com. Google Reader’s app is better than the web site. Etc. Modern, minimalist, touch-optimized UIs are just better for most purposes than fiddly, small-target, micromanagement-heavy WIMP-era UIs.
Better screens. There are no laptops that have the quality of the Nexus 10’s screen, or the iPad Retina’s. The MBP Retinas are the closest, but they’re still not there, and also they’re ever-so-slightly more expensive. Also, the tablets can be put into portrait mode, which makes them way more usable for most purposes. On just about any website, I can see more actual content on my 10" tablet than on my 14" laptop. By a lot.
Better portability. Obviously in the sense that you can carry them around casually, which you can’t so much do with a laptop; they’re way better for using while lying down in bed; the battery lasts comparatively forever, so you don’t need to feel tied to an outlet nearly as much.
Is this substantiated at all? I heard the March rumor as well but I wasn’t able to find anything legitimate. Seems too close for it to actually be true.
Nothing is ever substantiated with Apple. Basically, though, the rumor is that they’re moving to a semi-annual product refresh cycle, so you’d see a spring and a fall refresh.
Agreed. If it wasn’t for work and gaming, I doubt I would use laptop/PC much at all - and that’s just with the first generation Transformer in the house. I’ve been frustrated more than once when I’ve jammed my finger at the screen of my laptop.
Microsoft have the right idea with the Surface - just a pity that the way they’ve gone about implementing it is flawed.
The March rumor I heard for Apple is also the fall rumor – new iPad will be designed more like the mini and be lighter too, and the mini will get the newer processor that’s in the current 10 inch iPad or retina display or both.
Most of the rumors I’ve been reading peg this as happening in the fall though.
It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with for the next iPad. Apple’s hit a stage of “good enough” with the hardware – the initial compromises are mostly gone. I didn’t upgrade my iPhone 4S, and I can’t see any reason to upgrade my iPad 3 right now.
I can’t see them making a dramatic enough thickness/weight reduction in the iPad for that to be a major selling point for me – it would have to be really significant to justify the cost. Though if they’re able to cut power consumption and reduce the size of the battery, that could be a selling a factor, because the iPad 3 takes a really long time to charge up, even on a 2A charger.
I think we’re definitely reaching a point where the big revolutionary jumps are over for the hardware, and it’s back to regular evolution. But the nice thing is, it’s evolution of the old-school kind, like when you upgraded your Pentium to a Pentium II and it was way faster. As fast as mobile processors are, considering their power, size, and cost limitations, they’re still pretty slow overall. And so regular ol’ Moore applying still has amazing consequences – in 3 years, you should expect tablets with 8GB of RAM and processors four times as fast as today’s, right?
But the interesting part is definitely going to be the software, really. Watching how Android, iOS and Windows will evolve in a way that preserves the virtues of modern UI and OS concepts, while also enabling the kind of flexibility and “power” that you used to get on legacy OSes like OSX or classic Windows, is probably the most interesting thing in tech right now.
No, there are several revolutionary jumps ahead of us. First, I expect to see thin/light 10" tablets. The ipad mini form factor at 10", basically. That will come quick.
After that, we’ll get a generation or three of lacking innovation with minor improvements to speed/weight, followed by flexible screens. After a generation or three of that, prices will be so low that they start to become disposable. I’d expect that at 10 years out.
Flexible screens would be cool. I’d love to be able to fold up my computer and carry it in my pocket.
The rumored next iPad is supposed to be modeled after the Mini. I think Apple realizes that these 10 inch tablets need to get lighter or else more and more sales are going to go to the Mini.
Well yes of course they do, but retina screens take a lot more power to run, and it’s not clear that battery capacity is there yet. The next 10" ipad will probably lack borders around the longer edges and look superficially like the mini’s face, but I wouldn’t bet on it matching the extremely slim thickness.
Then again, Apple gets all the newest technology first these days, so they could have something in their pockets.
